Bonus speaker

     I found myself really struggling to find a speaker that would fit my schedule and fit the criteria needed to count as extra credit.  I was at the point of almost giving up because nothing was aligning up with both of those, no matter how hard I tried to make it work.  I made a last minute decision to go to a Christian speaker at the Pinnacle last Friday, which would have been April 22nd called Stand Up.  The speaker was Dr. David Jeremiah out of California. 

The speaker spoke of points on how much this world around us is changing.  How we are devoting time apart from what really is essential and were giving our focus elsewhere.  How the negatives of this world are pulling us so much closer and we’re forgetting about what this life is truly about.  Then he touched base on my generation and how were stuck in a virtual world that is so far from real.  Just at this time I was sitting in my seat thinking silently to myself how I was going to accomplish this extra credit.  It was just then that my phone went off in my lap.  It was just like a bullet hit me and I suddenly realized that the exact person he was talking about was me.  I am the definition of my generation that is locked to a phone screen instead of wanting to converse with those around them.  I stare blankly at a screen, scrolling with my thumb for hours on end each day.  At the end of the day, I look back and see how it accomplished me nothing.  It took me away from what I needed to be doing.  It put my focus from where it should be, to something completely irrelevant that I could 100% live without. 

     We’ve talked a lot about terms in class terms such as power browsing, cognitive load, switching costs, and continuous partial attention.  I distinctively remember sitting in class and hearing the definitions to the terms listed and feeling like I was being directly spoken to and that I was the only one guilty of such crimes.  They fit in so well with me and how I feel I do things majority of the time.  I hardly ever read all of the information given to me, at most scan it to get clues of what the material beholds.  I am always switching my attention when it comes to information online.  This was super prevalent when the speaker was giving his speech because my mind was constantly being disrupted by outside thoughts.  I continuously bounce from browser to browser or profile to profile.  Probably the most detrimental one of them all for myself would be not being able to hold attention and focus on tasks for long.  Before this class I wouldn’t have thought that my activity online would have been the reason for this but ever since learning about this, I see how true it really is.  One social media page can hardly hold my attention for more than a few minutes and thats what I spent majority of my time doing.  How can anything else really think it will hold my attention if that wont? I have noticed with school work or class time my attention is constantly being pulled in multiple directions.  From trying to pay attention to what needs to be done, to trying to stay off my phone, to day dreaming about what I need to do that day.  It’s a serious matter that I fall completely guilty of and never would have thought it was due to the amount of time I spend plugged in to the online world.  

     I really noticed while sitting in the crowd at the Pinnacle just how all the speaker was saying was completely true.  I also noticed, just how social media, and the internet play a very large role in the change going on in the world.  I personally believe along with many others it’s changing us for the worse.  From relationship damage becoming easier, pornography, taking all of our attention, and decreasing the way we converse with others along with many other things. It is incredibly evident to see how it’s changed us. I lastly noticed, how my phone was pulling me apart from what really mattered to me.  I claim my faith to be the center of my life, but find myself contraditing that when I’m on my phone at this speaker.  I think we all can agree that social media has changed us.  However, it’s in our own hands how we let it control us or lack of.  I think it’s good for everyone to step back sometimes, unplug and reflect on what’s really important.